During our first annual One Act Festival on June 19th, we’ll be hosting a live viewing party where you'll see a variety of new one act plays performed live, video recorded, or audio recorded.
We reached out to a few of the actors of Pick Up directed by Carin Metzger and written by Jonathan Wickremasinghe-Kuhnabout what this experience has been like.
Tracey Johnston-Crum
1. What are the challenges of performing under these circumstances?
Home distractions and the inability to share space with your fellow actors, I believe are the greatest challenges. I also have demanding cats, who fully believe that they are part of the show.
2. What have you found to be your biggest quarantine hobby?
Lawn work. Technically, it's already what I love to do for both mental and physical catharsis but I have found that I need/enjoy it even more during this challenging time.
3. What makes you most excited about the One Act Play Festival?
Exploring new ways of performing and communicating the story to a digital audience.
4. What is your favorite line from the one-act you’re performing in?
It's a tie between, "You can talk to me" and " I always pick up."
5. What makes this experience special for you?
The people I get to work with on the project. Whether it's digitally or in person, it never fails that the relationships you build with your fellow artists as you work to tell the story, are always the largest rewards.
Biography
Tracey Johnston-Crum has been acting professionally for more than half of her life. She has had the pleasure of making a career and an actual living at her craft both nationally and internationally. Tracey now finds the greatest reward doing theatre here in Asheville with her friends; or, rather, the family-she-chooses. A few notable local credits include: The Bernstein Family Christmas Spectacular (All 10 years!); Tartuffe; Titus Andronicus; 12 Angry Jurors; Off The Rails; Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche; MILF, The Musical; and Stupid F-ing Bird
Emily Tucker
1. What are the challenges of performing under these circumstances?
As an actor I have always had a need to be in the space of my performances. I have relied on being on stage and moving through my blocking to find my characters physicality as well as learning my lines. Finding a space for my character and ultimately finding that character in my personal space has presented a new set of challenges that I wasn't expecting.
2. What have you found to be your biggest quarantine hobby?
Definitely movies. Movies have always been a passion of mine, I have a love for Old Hollywood films that I cannot even properly describe. I have been escaping more and more into these films as I spend most of my time in my apartment. William Powell and Myrna Loy have become pretty constant companions for me, and have kept me laughing and in better spirits.
3. What makes you most excited about the One Act Play Festival?
I haven't participated in one act performance since high school. I was always excited about the fact that such a full story could be told so compactly but you still had the same deep feeling that would resonate from a full show.
4. What is your favorite line from the one-act you’re performing in and why?
"It all feels so routine. Like I'm following a script I didn't get to help write." This line stuck with me from the very first time I read it because I myself have said this, or a version of this line, so many times in my own life that I have lost count. This resonated so deeply with me because this is the truest line that I feel I have ever spoken, it was also what connected me to my character. As soon as I read this I felt like I knew her.
5. What makes this experience special for you?
This has been one of the biggest learning experiences of my life in theatre. Getting used to a virtual performance platform has taught me that I need to be more flexible as an actor. Performing via zoom, not sharing a physical space with my fellow actor or my director is a new, somewhat disjointed feeling, but at the root of everything is learning and adapting. So that is what I try to remind myself. In this time, we as theatre artists have to be more willing to welcome new mediums to keep our art going, and learning this for me has made this experience all the richer.
Biography
Emily Tucker has been working in the Asheville Theatre for almost eight years. Some highlights of her time here include Capital Liar (Vanna, The Magnetic Theatre), Private Lives (Louise, Montford Park Players), Midsummer Night's Dream (Titania, Montford Park Players) and The Legacy of Amelia Aldean (Georgia, The Magnetic Theater).
Tickets are now on sale for our upcoming One Act Play Festival on June 19th! Grab yours here: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=114699